1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and device to aid an airborne device operator in the learning of flying certain aircraft. This device may be used to train people to perform better when faced with the task to fly, and also has a biosensor array that monitors the pilot's health.
There are various levels of equipment added on standard flight simulators to provide the operator with a more realistic and advanced experience of flying. Commonly used are pistons and actuators used to move the operator based on how he controls the aircraft he are flying. Most flight simulators use computer programs to run the simulator. Many can be very advanced but they still do not provide the exact sense of reality.
The system consists in a mobile sensor array support, sensors and microprocessor system and a plurality of receiving processing stations.
The method consists in a set of procedures to acquire the data from the model remote controlled aircraft sensors, process it and use to make the movement simulator reproduce one or more of them, giving the pilot the feeling that he is inside the flying object, producing a quasi flying experience. The controls are similar to the real aircraft and so the model reproduces the real plane features, having a ride inside the RC-Simulator, being equivalent to an experience on the real object but at much smaller risks.
The novel learning process includes 4 stages:                Theoretical approach, when the student is learning all the details of the aircraft he is going to operate.        Computer simulator stage, when the student is learning how to operate the object in virtual. reality        RC simulation stage, when the student that passed virtual reality flight test is flying an RC model inside the simulator, stage is meant to minimize initial risks of learning how to fly and how to respond in simulated equipment failures.        Real aircraft learning practice, starts after passing all RC simulated tests in good and bad weather.        
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are known for long time that RC (Radio-controlled) aircraft that may be models or full-size radio-controlled also known as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). According to Wikipedia, a radio-controlled (model) aircraft (often called RC aircraft or RC plane) is a small flying machine that is controlled remotely by an operator on the ground using a hand-held radio transmitter, that communicates with a receiver within the craft that sends signals to servomechanisms (servos) which move the control surfaces based on the position of joysticks on the transmitter. The control surfaces, in turn, affect the orientation of the plane.
Flying RC aircraft as a hobby has been growing worldwide with the advent of more efficient motors (both electric and miniature internal combustion or jet engines), lighter, more powerful batteries and less expensive radio systems.
Scientific, government and military organizations are also utilizing RC aircraft for experiments, gathering weather readings, aerodynamic modeling and testing, and even using them as drones in military operations or as spy planes.
There are many types of radio-controlled aircraft:                For beginning hobbyists, there are park flyers and trainers.        For more experienced pilots there are glow plug engine, electric powered and sailplane aircraft.        For expert flyers, jets, pylon racers, helicopters, autogiros, 3D aircraft, and other high-end competition aircraft provide adequate challenge.        Some models are copying nature and made to look and operate like a bird instead.        
As Boddington, David showed in “Radio-Controlled Model Aircraft” book, published in 2004 by Crowood Press, the most realistic form of aero-modeling, in its main purpose to replicate full-scale aircraft designs from aviation history, for testing of future aviation designs, or even to realize never-built “proposed” aircraft, is that of radio control scale aero-modeling, as the most practical way to re-create “vintage” full-scale aircraft designs for flight once more, from long ago. RC, where scale model aircraft can be of any type of steerable airship lighter-than-air (LTA) aviation craft, or more normally, of the heavier-than-air fixed wing glider/sailplane, fixed-wing single, multi-engine aircraft, or rotary-wing aircraft such as autogiros or helicopters.
Builders of RC Scale aircraft can enjoy the challenge of creating a controllable, miniature aircraft that merely “looks” like the full scale original in the air with no “fine details”, such as a detailed cockpit, or seriously replicate many operable features of a selected full scale aircraft design, even down to having operable cable-connected flight control surfaces, illuminated navigation lighting on the aircraft's exterior, realistically retracting landing gear, etc. if the full-sized aircraft possessed such features as part of its design.
Various scale sizes of RC scale aircraft have been built in the decades since modern digital-proportional, miniaturized RC gear came on the market in the 1960 s. Everything from indoor-flyable electric powered RC Scale models to “giant scale” RC Scale models, in scale size ranges that usually run from 20% to 25%, and upwards to 30 to 50% size of some smaller full scale aircraft designs. They can replicate some of the actual flight characteristics of the full scale aircraft they are based on and have been enjoyed. They continue to be built and flown in sanctioned competition and for personal pleasure as part of the RC scale aero-modeling hobby.
Radio-controlled helicopters (although often grouped with RC aircraft) are in a class of their own because of the vast differences in construction, aerodynamics and flight training. Hobbyists will often venture from planes, to jets and to helicopters as they enjoy the challenges, excitement and satisfaction of flying. Some radio-controlled helicopters have photo or video cameras installed and are used for aerial imaging or surveillance. Newer “3d” radio control helicopters can fly inverted with the advent of advanced swash heads, and servo linkage that enables the pilot to immediately reverse the pitch of the blades, creating a reverse in thrust.
Since about 2004, new, more sophisticated toy RC airplanes, helicopters, have been appearing on toy store shelves. This new category of toy RC distinguishes itself by:                Proportional (vs. “on-off”) throttle control, which is critical for preventing the excitation of oscillation, whenever a throttle change is made. It also allows for manageable and steady altitude control and reduction of altitude loss in turns.        EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) foam construction making them virtually indestructible in normal use.        Low flying speed and typically rear-mounted propeller(s) make them less harmful when crashing into people and property. Stable spiral mode resulting in simple turning control where “rudder” input results in a steady bank angle rather than a steady roll rate.        
3D flight is a type of flying in which model aircraft have a thrust-to-weight ratio of more than 1:1 (typically 1.5:1 or more), large control surfaces with extreme throws, low weight compared to other models of same size and relatively low wing loadings. Simply put, 3D flight is the art of flying a plane below its stall speed (the speed at which the wings of the plane can no longer generate enough lift to keep the plane in the air).
These elements allow for spectacular aerobatics such as hovering, ‘harriers’, torque rolling, blenders, rolling circles, and more maneuvers that are performed below the stall speed of the model. The type of flying could be referred to as ‘on the prop’ as opposed to ‘on the wing’, which would describe more conventional flight patterns that make more use of the lifting surfaces of the plane.
First-person view (FPV) flight is a type of remote-control flying that has grown in popularity in recent years. It involves mounting a small video camera and television transmitter on an RC aircraft and flying by means of a live video down-link, commonly displayed on video goggles or a portable LCD screen, as described in AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) Document #550″. When flying FPV, the pilot sees from the aircraft's perspective, and does not even have to look at the model. As a result, FPV aircraft can be flown well beyond visual range, limited only by the range of the remote control and video transmitter. Video transmitters typically operate at a power level between 200 mW and 1500 mW. The most common frequencies used for video transmission are 900 MHz, 1.2 GHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz.[7] Specialized long-range UHF control systems operating at 433 MHz (for amateur radio licensees only) or 869 MHz[7] are commonly used to achieve greater control range, while the use of directional, high-gain antennas increases video range. Sophisticated setups are capable of achieving a range of 20-30 miles or more. FPV aircraft are frequently used for aerial photography and videography. A basic FPV system consists of a camera, video transmitter, video receiver, and a display. More advanced setups commonly add in specialized hardware, including on-screen displays with GPS navigation and flight data, stabilization systems, and autopilot devices with “return to home” capability—allowing the aircraft to fly back to its starting point on its own in the event of signal loss. On-board cameras can be equipped with a pan and tilt mount, which when coupled with video goggles and “head tracking” devices creates a truly immersive, first-person experience, as if the pilot was actually sitting in the cockpit of the RC aircraft, as Paul K. Johnson showed in his paper “Engineering RC Aircraft for Light Weight, Strength& Rigidity”, published in Airfield Models on Jan. 21, 2009.
Both helicopters and fixed-wing RC aircraft are used for FPV flight. The most commonly chosen airframes for FPV planes are larger models with sufficient payload space for the video equipment and large wings capable of supporting the extra weight. Pusher-propeller planes are preferred so that the propeller is not in view of the camera. Flying wing designs are also popular for FPV, as they provide a good combination of large wing surface area, speed, maneuverability, and gliding ability are regulated in U.S. by Federal Aviation Administration “Interpretation of the Special Rule for Model Aircraft”. Additionally, if there is a flight assist or autopilot module on the craft (more common on the multi-rotor copters), features such as gyro-based stabilization, GPS location hold, height hold, return home, etc., can be controlled.
Three channels (controlling rudder, elevator and throttle) are common on trainer aircraft. Four channel aircraft add aileron control. For complex models and larger scale planes, multiple servos may be used on control surfaces. In such cases, more channels may be required to perform various functions such as deploying retractable landing gear, opening cargo doors, dropping bombs, operating remote cameras, lights, etc. Transmitters are available with as few as 2 channels to as many as 18 channels.
The right and left ailerons move in opposite directions. However, aileron control will often use two channels to enable mixing of other functions on the transmitter. For example, when they both move downward they can be used as flaps (flaperons), or when they both move upward, as spoilers (spoilerons). Delta winged aircraft designs commonly lack a separate elevator, its function being mixed with the ailerons and the combined control surfaces being known as elevons. V-tail mixing, needed for such full-scale aircraft designs as the Beech-craft Bonanza, when modeled as RC scale miniatures, is also done in a similar manner as elevons and flaperons.
Another existing development is motion simulator or motion platform, which is a mechanism that encapsulates occupants and creates the effect/feelings of being in a moving vehicle. A motion simulator can also be called a motion base, motion chassis or a motion seat after Phillip Denne 2004 paper “Motion Platforms or Motion Seats?”.
The movement is synchronous with visual display and is designed to add a tactile element to video gaming, simulation, and virtual reality. When motion is applied and synchronized to audio and video signals, the result is a combination of sight, sound, and touch. All full motion simulators move the entire occupant compartment and can convey changes in orientation and the effect of false gravitational forces. These motion cues trick the mind as Scanlon, Charles H. showed in December 1987 in his book “Effect of Motion Cues During Complex Curved Approach and Landing Tasks” published by NASA. into thinking it is immersed in the simulated environment and experiencing kinematic changes in position, velocity, and acceleration. The mind's failure to accept the experience can result in motion sickness. Motion platforms can provide movement on up to six degrees of freedom: three rotational degrees of freedom (roll, pitch, yaw) and three translational or linear degrees of freedom (surge, heave, sway).
In 2006 SimCraft Corporation published a paper on “Military Grade Full Motion Simulators for SimRacing and FlightSim”, and showed that motion simulators can be classified according to whether the occupant is controlling the vehicle, or whether the occupant is a passive rider, also referred to as a simulator ride or motion theater.
Common examples of occupant-controlled motion simulators are flight simulators, driving simulators, and auto racing games. Other occupant-controlled vehicle simulation games simulate the control of boats, motorcycles, rollercoasters, military vehicles, ATVs, or spacecraft, among other craft types.
A typical high-end motion system is the Stewart platform, which provides full 6 degrees of freedom (3 translation and 3 rotation) and employs sophisticated algorithms to provide high-fidelity motions and accelerations. These are used in a number of applications, including flight simulators for training pilots. However, the complexity and expensive mechanisms required to incorporate all degrees of freedom has led to alternative motion simulation technology using mainly the three rotational degrees of freedom. An analysis of capabilities of these systems reveals that a simulator with three rotational degrees of freedom is capable of producing motion simulation quality and vestibular motion sensations comparable to that produced by a Stewart platform as Nicolas A. Pouliot; Clément M. Gosselin; Meyer A. Nahon, show in their paper “Motion Simulation Capabilities of Three-Degree-of-Freedom Flight Simulators”, published Journal of Aircraft 35, Jan. 1998 Historically these systems used hydraulics or pneumatics; however, many modern systems use electric actuators. The lower-cost systems include home-based motion platforms, which have recently become a more common device used to enhance video games, simulation, and virtual reality. Motion simulators are sometimes used in theme parks to give the park guests a themed simulation of flight or other motions Star Tours and its sequel, located at Disneyland and other Disney theme parks, use purpose-modified military flight simulators known as Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulators (ATLAS) to simulate a flight through outer space. The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., houses a gallery full of two-seat interactive flight simulators doing 360-degree barrel rolls in air combat presented in 2006 in the paper “Motion Platforms”, by Moorabbin Flying Services.
The way we perceive our body and our surroundings is a function of the way our brain interprets signals from our various sensory systems, such as sight, sound, balance and touch. Special sensory pick-up units (or sensory “pads”) called receptors translate stimuli into sensory signals. External receptors (exteroceptors) respond to stimuli that arise outside the body, such as the light that stimulates the eyes, sound pressure that stimulates the ear, pressure and temperature that stimulates the skin and chemical substances that stimulate the nose and mouth. Internal receptors (enteroceptors) respond to stimuli that arise from within blood vessels.
Postural stability is maintained through the vestibular reflexes acting on the neck and limbs. These reflexes, which are key to successful motion synchronization, are under the control of three classes of sensory input:
The vestibular system contributes to balance and sense of spatial orientation and includes the vestibular organs, ocular system, and muscular system. The vestibular system is contained in the inner ear and interprets rotational motion and linear acceleration. The vestibular system does not interpret vertical motion.
Visual input from the eye relays information to the brain about the craft's position, velocity, and attitude relative to the ground.
Proprioceptors are receptors located in your muscles, tendons, joints and the inner ear, which send signals to the brain regarding the body's position. An example of a “popular” proprioceptor often mentioned by aircraft pilots, is the “seat of the pants”. In other words, these sensors present a picture to your brain as to where you are in space as external forces act on your body. Proprioceptors respond to stimuli generated by muscle movement and muscle tension. Signals generated by exteroceptors and proprioceptors are carried by sensory neurons or nerves and are called electrochemical signals. When a neuron receives such a signal, it sends it on to an adjacent neuron through a bridge called a synapse. A synapse “sparks” the impulse between neurons through electrical and chemical means. These sensory signals are processed by the brain and spinal cord, which then respond with motor signals that travel along motor nerves. Motor neurons, with their special fibers, carry these signals to muscles, which are instructed to either contract or relax.
The downfall with our internal motion sensors is that once a constant speed or velocity is reached, these sensors stop reacting. Your brain now has to rely on visual cues until another movement takes place and the resultant force is felt. In motion simulation, when our internal motion sensors can no longer detect motion, a “washout” of the motion system may occur. A washout allows the motion platform occupant to think they are making a continuous movement when actually the motion has stopped. In other words, washout is where the simulator actually returns to a central, home, or reference position in anticipation of the next movement. This movement back to neutral must occur without the occupant actually realizing what is happening. This is an important aspect in motion simulators as the human feel sensations must be as close to real as possible.
The vestibular system is the balancing and equilibrium system of the body that includes the vestibular organs, ocular system, and muscular system. The vestibular system is contained in the inner ear. It consists of three semicircular canals, or tubes, arranged at right angles to one another. Each canal is lined with hairs connected to nerve endings and is partially filled with fluid. When the head experiences acceleration the fluid moves within the canals, causing the hair follicles to move from their initial vertical orientation. In turn the nerve endings fire resulting in the brain interpreting the acceleration as pitch, roll, or yaw.
There are, however, three shortcomings to this system. First, although the vestibular system is a very fast sense used to generate reflexes to maintain perceptual and postural stability, compared to the other senses of vision, touch and audition, vestibular input is perceived with delay as Barnett-Cowan, M., and Harris, L. R. showed in their 2009 paper entitled: “Perceived timing of vestibular stimulation relative to touch, light and sound” published in Experimental Brain Research,
Grant P, Lee in 2007 writes about Motion and visual phase-error detection in a flight simulator, published in J Aircraft, showing that in spite engineers typically try and reduce delays between physical and visual motion, it has been shown that a motion simulator should move about 130 ms before visual motion in order to maximize motion simulator sensorial fidelity. Second, if the head experiences sustained accelerations on the order of 10-20 seconds, the hair follicles return to the “zero” or vertical position and the brain interprets this as the acceleration ceasing. Additionally, there is a lower acceleration threshold of about 2 degrees per second that the brain cannot perceive. In other words, slow and gradual enough motion below the threshold will not affect the vestibular system. This shortfall actually allows the simulator to return to a reference position in anticipation of the next movement. The human eye is the most important source of information in motion simulation. The eye relays information to the brain about the craft's position, velocity, and attitude relative to the ground. As a result, it is essential for realistic simulation that the motion works in direct synchronization to what is happening on the video output screen. Time delays cause disagreement within the brain, due to error between the expected input and the actual input given by the simulator. This disagreement can lead to dizziness, fatigue and nausea in some people.
For example, if the occupant commands the vehicle to roll to the left, the visual displays must also roll by the same magnitude and at the same rate. Simultaneously, the cab tilts the occupant to imitate the motion. The occupant's proprioceptors and vestibular system sense this motion. The motion and change in the visual inputs must align well enough such that any discrepancy is below the occupant's threshold to detect the differences in motion.
In order to be an effective training or entertainment device, the cues the brain receives by each of the body's sensory inputs must agree.
It is physically impossible to correctly simulate large-scale ego-motion in the limited space of a laboratory. The standard approach to simulate motions (so called motion cueing) is to simulate the “relevant” cues as closely as possible, especially the acceleration of an observer. Visual and auditory cues enable humans to perceive their location in space on an absolute scale. On the other hand, the somato-sensory cues, mainly proprioception and the signals from the vestibular system, code only relative information and Markus von der Heyde & Bernhard E. Riecke in Dec. 2001 wrote about “how to cheat in motion simulation—comparing the engineering and fun ride approach to motion cueing” showing that humans cannot perceive accelerations and velocities perfectly and without systematic errors, and this is where the tricky business of motion simulation starts, because one can use those imperfections of the human sensory and perceptual systems to cheat intelligently Extending their application in gaming, where motion enabled gaming becomes more realistic, thus more iterative and more stimulating. However, there are adverse effects to the use of motion in simulation that can take away from the primary purpose of using the simulator in the first place such as Motion Sickness. For instance, there have been reports of military pilots throwing off their vestibular system because of moving their heads around in the simulator similar to how they would in an actual aircraft to maintain their sensitivity to accelerations. However, due to the limits on simulator acceleration, this effect becomes detrimental when transitioning back to a real aircraft.
Motion or simulator sickness: Simulators work by “tricking” the mind into believing that the inputs it is receiving from visual, vestibular and proprioceptive inputs are a specific type of desired motion. When any of the cues received by the brain do not correlate with the others, motion sickness can occur. In principle, simulator sickness is simply a form of motion sickness that can result from discrepancies between the cues from the three physical source inputs. For example, riding on a ship with no windows sends a cue that the body is accelerating and rotating in various directions from the vestibular system, but the visual system sees no motion since the room is moving in the same manner as the occupant. In this situation, many would feel motion sickness.
Along with simulator sickness, additional symptoms have been observed after exposure to motion simulation. These symptoms include feelings of warmth, pallor and sweating, depression and apathy, headache and fullness of head, drowsiness and fatigue, difficulty focusing eyes, eye strain, blurred vision, burping, difficulty concentrating, and visual flashbacks. Lingering effects of these symptoms were observed to sometimes last up to a day or two after exposure to the motion simulator.
Several factors contribute to simulation sickness, which can be categorized into human variables, simulator usage, and equipment. Common human variable factors include susceptibility, flight hours, fitness, and medication/drugs. An individual's variance in susceptibility to motion sickness is a dominant contributing factor to simulator sickness. Increasing flight hours is also an issue for pilots as they become more accustomed to the actual motion in a vehicle. Contributing factors due to simulator usage are adaptation, distorted or complicated scene content, longer simulation length, and freeze/reset. Freeze/reset refers to the starting or ending points of a simulation, which should be as close to steady and level conditions as possible. Clearly, if a simulation is ended in the middle of an extreme maneuver then the test subjects IMU system is likely to be distorted. Simulator equipment factors that contribute to motion sickness are quality of motion system, quality of visual system, off-axis viewing, poorly aligned optics, flicker, and delay/mismatch between visual and motion systems. The delay/mismatch issue has historically been a concern in simulator technology, where time lag between pilot input and the visual and motion systems can cause confusion and generally decrease simulator performance.
Simulators provide a safe means of training in the operation of potentially dangerous aircraft
According to Wikipedia and Federal Aviation Administration “FAR 121 Subpart N—Training Program”, a flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of flight controls, the effects of other aircraft systems, and how the aircraft reacts to external factors such as air density, turbulence, wind shear, cloud, precipitation, etc. Flight simulation is used for a variety of reasons, including flight training (mainly of pilots), the design and development of the aircraft itself, and research into aircraft characteristics and control handling qualities.
Statistically significant assessments of skill transfer based on training on a simulator and leading to handling an actual aircraft are difficult to make, particularly where motion cues are concerned. Large samples of pilot opinion are required and many subjective opinions tend to be aired, particularly by pilots not used to making objective assessments and responding to a structured test schedule. For many years, it was believed that 6 DOF motion-based simulations gave the pilot closer fidelity to flight control operations and aircraft responses to control inputs and external forces and gave a better training outcome for students than non-motion-based simulation. This is described as “handling fidelity”, which can be assessed by test flight standards such as the numerical Cooper-Harper rating scale for handling qualities. Recent scientific studies have shown that the use of technology such as vibration or dynamic seats within flight simulators can be equally as effective in the delivery of training as large and expensive 6-DOF FFS devices as the paper “Transfer of Training from a Full-Flight Simulator vs. a High Level Flight Training Device with a Dynamic Seat” by Andrea L. Sparko, Judith Biirki-Cohen, and Tiauw H. Go argues.
The largest flight simulator in the world is the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) at NASA Ames Research Center in “Silicon Valley” south of San Francisco as shown in Space Shuttle Landing and Rollout Training at the Vertical Motion Simulator” written by Steven D. Beard, Leslie A. Ringo, Brian Mader, Estela H. Buchmann and Thomas Tanita. This has a very large-throw motion system with 60 feet (+/−30 ft) of vertical movement (heave). The heave system supports a horizontal beam on which are mounted 40 ft rails, allowing lateral movement of a simulator cab of +/−20 feet. A conventional 6-degree of freedom hexapod platform is mounted on the 40 ft beam, and an interchangeable cabin is mounted on the platform. This design permits quick switching of different aircraft cabins. Simulations have ranged from blimps, commercial and military aircraft to the Space Shuttle. In the case of the Space Shuttle, the large Vertical Motion Simulator was used to investigate a longitudinal pilot-induced oscillation (PIO) that occurred on an early Shuttle flight just before landing. After identification of the problem on the VMS, it was used to try different longitudinal control algorithms and recommend the best for use in the Shuttle program.
AMST Systemtechnik GmbH (AMST) of Austria and Environmental Tectonics Corporation (ETC) of Philadelphia, US, manufacture a range of simulators for disorientation training, that have full freedom in yaw. The most complex of these devices is the Desdemona simulator at the TNO Research Institute in The Netherlands, manufactured by AMST. This large simulator has a gimballed cockpit mounted on a framework, which adds vertical motion. The framework is mounted on rails attached to a rotating platform. The rails allow the simulator cab to be positioned at different radii from the center of rotation and this gives a sustained G capability up to about 3.5 described by Roza, M., M. Wentink and Ph. Feenstra, in their presentation entitled “Performance Testing of the Desdemona Motion System.” Given at the AIAA MST conference, held in Hilton Head, S.C., 20-23 Aug. 2007 Manned flight simulators employ various types of hardware and software, depending on the modeling detail and realism that is required for the role in which they are to be employed. Designs range from PC laptop-based models of aircraft systems (called Part Task Trainers or PTTs), to replica cockpits for initial familiarization, to highly realistic simulations of the cockpit, flight controls and aircraft systems for more complete pilot training.
The use of unmanned systems by defense forces globally has grown substantially over the past decade, and is only expected to continue to grow significantly. In addition, unmanned systems will be used increasingly for commercial applications such as remote inspection of pipelines and hydroelectric installations, surveillance of forest fires, observation of critical natural resources, assessing natural disasters and a range of other applications. This increase in the use of UAS capabilities results in the need to have more highly skilled UAS pilots, sensor operators, and mission commanders, as described in Wikipedia
UAS Simulation Training combines an open architecture with commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and simulation software that helps the use of proprietary designs to provide a comprehensive, platform-agnostic training system. Customers benefit from greater flexibility for evolution, networking, distributed mission training and combination within an integrated training environment. UAS is a solution that optimizes operational readiness while minimizing the use of live assets to train and prepare the integrated mission team for operations. The comprehensive solution also prepares the integrated mission team (pilot, payload specialist, and commanding officer) in platform operating procedures, data interpretation and analysis, and team interaction as presented by DoD in 2012 in the Department of Defense Report to Congress on Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training, Operations and Sustainability.
Firefighters, police, miners, and weather researchers are now using UAVs (commonly referred to as drones), which were first used in military sectors. The drones used by police and firefighters are the same type of drones; however, they are used for different purposes. UAVs have gone beyond the human capacity of lifting heavy loads, performing daring photography amidst a heavy storm, and digitizing images that can be converted into 3D maps. Weather researchers use different drones to help predict weather, photograph storms and measure temperature. Drones are very essential for weather crews in predicting wind speed and temperature, wind direction, air temperature and pressure, while other drones are used for actually taking images of storm systems, even inside the storm itself and taking images of the storm system as shown by Healy, Marc, in 2013 in the book Applications for Drones in Emergency Response.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,214,088, from Jul. 3, 2012, Lefebure describes device for piloting a drone. The device for piloting a drone comprises a housing having a tilt detector for detecting tilts of the housing, and a touchpad displaying a plurality of touch zones. A self-contained stabilizer system is used to stabilize the drone in hovering flight in the absence of any user commands. The device comprises a controller controlled by a touch zone forming an activation/deactivation button to cause the drone piloting mode to switch in alternation between an activation mode in which the self-contained stabilizer system of the drone is activated, in which mode said piloting commands transmitted to the drone result from transforming signals delivered by the touch zones and a deactivation mode in which the self-contained stabilizer system of the drone is deactivated, in which mode the piloting commands transmitted to the drone result from transforming signals emitted by the tilt detector of the housing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 9,058,750, from Jun. 16, 2015, Bohlender talks about a flight simulator vibration system The invention relates to a flight simulator vibration system, particularly to a crew seat, a flight control stick and a panel vibration system of a flight simulator with at least one plate of the crew seat, the flight control stick and/or the panel being equipped with predefined momentum weights and electric motors driving said respective momentum weights. Speed governors are controlling individually said electric motors. This patent was assigned to Airbus Helicopters Deutschland GmbH from Donauworth, DE.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 9,011,152, from Apr. 21, 2015 Yudintsev , et al. disclosed a system and method for simulated aircraft control through desired direction of flight where they teach about an aircraft control system for a user of a simulated aircraft. The system includes input devices for controlling the simulated aircraft, a video display having three-dimensional graphics, modeling software for determining position and orientation information based on desired direction of flight obtained through the input devices. User controls desired direction of flight through the input devices, thus controlling aircraft. The aircraft control system may be embodied as a flight game and was assigned to the Gaijin Entertainment Corporation, Alexandria Va., US.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,996,179, from Mar. 31, 2015, Veltena and Marinus describe a movement simulator. The movement simulator includes a base; a platform movable relative to the base; a plurality of actuators each having a controllably variable length, each of the actuators being coupled with the base and carrying the platform, wherein the dimensions of the base and the platform, and the variable lengths of the actuators determine a workspace within the platform can move. A controller is operable to provide a motion cueing algorithm having a demanded platform state as output and a washout controller having a washout adaptation as output, which washout controller keeps the platform within its workspace by adapting the demanded platform state to a commanded platform state using the washout adaptation. The commanded platform state controls, via a kinematic transformation, the lengths of the actuators. The washout adaptation is calculated using a model predictive control algorithm and was assigned to E2M Technologies B.V. of Amsterdam, NL.
What is important in all these is the way we perceive our body and our surroundings is a function of the way our brain interprets signals from our various sensory systems, such as sight, sound, balance and touch. All 6 sensing functions of the body are active and have to be stimulated accordingly. . What is now done are various flying devices, that give a real flying device and a real sensorial image, operated under life threatening hazards, computer simulated virtual reality, with simulated sensorial reality, that does not match the reality, but has no hazard associated to failure to perform, model flying devices, with customized control that has minimal hazards associated to failure to control, and lots of games from real dog-fight, to computer and RC plane games. The problem is: how to make an individual master the art of flight and dog fight with minimal total hazard? The actual hazard is given by the difference between real objects and simulators, and here is a lot of room for improvements and is what our invention trend to solve. Another issue is gaming, on how one may have quasi-real feeling of a real dog fight and being not among the very few that have the opportunity, not always a pleasure to take part into such an adrenaline intensive activity, where, FIG. 1 shows in a schematic view the actual details of the state of the art, RC model aircraft flight.
Definitions:
Similitude is a concept applicable to the testing of engineering models. A model is said to have similitude with the real application if the two share geometric similarity, kinematical similarity and dynamic similarity. Similarity and similitude are interchangeable in this context. The term dynamic similitude is often used as a catchball because it implies that geometric and kinematical similitude have already been met.
Similitude's main application is in hydraulic and aerospace engineering to test fluid flow conditions with scaled models. It is also the primary theory behind many textbook formulas in fluid mechanics.
NOTE: Construction of a scale model, however, must be accompanied by an analysis to determine what conditions it is tested under. While the geometry may be simply scaled, other parameters, such as pressure, temperature or the velocity and type of fluid may need to be altered. Similitude is achieved when testing conditions are created such that the test results are applicable to the real design.
The following criteria are required to achieve similitude;                Geometric similarity—The model is the same shape as the application, usually scaled.        Kinematical similarity—Fluid flow of both the model and real application must undergo similar time rates of change motions. (fluid streamlines are similar)        Dynamic similarity—Ratios of all forces acting on corresponding fluid particles and boundary surfaces in the two systems are constant.        